


this is thanksgiving

by SalomeWeil



Series: holiday season [3]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff, Lawyers, Swearing, Texting, Thanksgiving, everything I know about A.D.A.s I learned from Law & Order, everything I know about lawyers I learned from The Good Wife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 09:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12724059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalomeWeil/pseuds/SalomeWeil
Summary: Just because you work a holiday doesn't mean the holiday isn't still happening.Teen for fluff and mature language.





	this is thanksgiving

Kylo shuffled the papers on his desk into a file folder and started to set it aside, forgetting the coffee cup at his elbow. 

 

“Shit!” He dropped the file back onto the desk and quickly caught the wobbling cup before it could spill. Some of the coffee spit out of the lid and over his hand and he swore again, before scooting the cup forward on his desk, trading it for another file. He absentmindedly licked at the drops of coffee on his hand as he started flipping through the new file. 

 

A knock on the door jostled him from his work yet again.

 

“What is it?” he practically barked, not bothering to look up. 

 

“Christ, Ren. It’s nearly ten o’clock.”

 

Kylo glanced at his clock and then at Hux, who was lounging in the door of his office. “It’s twenty of.”

 

“That’s what I said, ten o’clock. Don’t be a prick.”

 

Kylo sighed. “What do you want, Hux?”

 

Hux’s features softened a little. “I’m leaving. It’s Thanksgiving day. Phas will have my head if I stay any longer. She was mad enough I split after dinner with her parents.”

 

“It’s hardly Thanksgiving day anymore,” Kylo pointed out dryly. 

 

“Yes, well, I have to be up in five hours again to go Black Friday shopping. It’s tradition.”

 

“You two have strange traditions.”

 

“We have nieces and nephews with expensive tastes in Christmas presents.”

 

“No, Phasma has nieces and nephews. You have a cat. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me. Do I smell a Christmas engagement coming up?”

 

“Shut up,” Hux said, coloring at his words.

 

“Hanukkah, maybe?”

 

“You know I don’t celebrate - you’re a piece of shit, Ren.”

 

“Get out of here, Hux,” Kylo said, laughing. Hux rolled his eyes and allowed a small smile to grace his lips. He tapped on the door frame before walking away.

 

“Don’t stay too late. I don’t know which case you’re on now, but it can wait. Especially since you’re not getting overtime for this.”

 

“We’re assistant district attorneys,” Kylo called after him, leaning over his desk. “We don’t get overtime!”

 

He heard Hux’s footsteps echo down the hall a-ways and then the sound of the stairwell door opening and closing. He sighed again and leaned back in his chair. 

 

He didn’t get overtime, not anymore. Not officially, anyway, and definitely not since he and Hux had turned coat on their expensive, posh law firm with offices in the business district. He ran a hand up and through his hair before leaning over his desk again to look at the files in front of him. When had they grown a collective conscience? Had it been when that little girl had stared at them accusingly from across the courtroom as her family’s killer went free? Or had that merely been the final straw? 

 

Either way, even if the work was more satisfying now, it wasn’t any easier to  actually complete. Sometimes he wondered why he didn’t just pack up entirely and go back for a degree in social work and really make his life miserable. 

 

“You’re doing more good here, Solo,” he whispered to himself. They were his mother’s words to him, words she’d told him in the dark of night, on one of his hardest days in the D.A.’s office to date. He took them out and repeated them to himself carefully, proudly, firmly, whenever he needed the encouragement...which was an awful lot, these days.

 

The screen on his phone flashed on and he glanced at it before reaching over and picking it up. Back onto the desk dropped the file as he swiped his phone open to read the text message. He felt his shoulders relax as he saw who it was from.

 

Rey: what r u doing

 

Kylo typed a quick reply, but didn’t put the phone down. Instead, he waited to see if she’d respond again. 

 

Kylo: at work

 

Rey: me too

 

Kylo smiled, imagining her in her scrubs, tired eyes, hair mussed, but pulled back tightly from her face: the way she looked when he ran into her in the hallway of their building. Rey responded again before he could comment.

 

Rey: happy turkey day

 

Kylo: we had that already

 

Rey: true -smiley face-

 

Kylo ran a hand through his hair again and tried to think of something to say in response. Anything to keep this sad little conversation going. Anything that would tell him whether she was all in the way he was all in. He couldn’t count their actual conversation on Saturday, at his mother’s. That had been spoken under stress and duress and influence of alcohol. On the other hand, he’d kissed her and she hadn’t punched him in the face for it, or spit, or pushed him away, even. That had to be a good sign. 

 

He needed a good sign just then.

 

His phone flashed, catching his attention again. 

 

Rey: did u eat yet

 

Kylo: does coffee count

 

Rey: NO lol

 

Kylo grinned and tapped his fingers along his desk as he thought of how to respond.

 

Kylo: then no. why?

 

Rey: just curious

 

Kylo: -smiley face-

 

He waited a few more minutes, sipping his coffee, but when his phone didn’t light up again, he set it aside and opened the file again.

 

Except he couldn’t concentrate.

 

His eyes kept straying over to his phone, lying dark and silent to one side, screen reflecting what little light there was in his office. He kept thinking about Rey: about how she was probably exhausted, and he was sure her feet were aching, and she probably had been texting him in the five free minutes she had out of what was supposed to be a guaranteed fifteen minutes, but never was. 

 

He wondered if she imagined him at his work the way he imagined her. He wondered if he would ever get his foot out of his mouth long enough in order to properly ask her out. 

 

A tap on his doorframe jostled him from his thoughts again and he glanced up to see one of the nighttime security guards for the building. 

 

“Mr. Ren?”

 

“ Nuñez ,” he said, giving a tired smile. “Kicking me out?”

 

The guard smiled back. “Not yet. You have a visitor.” The man moved out of the doorway and gestured to someone - a slender someone with gently curving shoulders who looked absolutely exhausted.

 

“Rey!” Kylo leapt from his seat and moved towards the door. “What, uh - I’m sorry,  Nuñez , do I need to help check her in or something?”

 

“Done. I would’ve called you first, but it’s so late already…”

 

“That’s fine. Thank you.” Kylo clutched one hand to his head, fingers tangled in his hair, and looked her over. “Um...do you want to come in?”

 

“Call me when you’re ready to leave,” the guard interrupted and Kylo thanked him again, waving as the other man walked away. 

 

He looked down at Rey and smiled, letting his hand drop. “It’s nice to see you.”

 

Rey grinned up at him. “It’s nice to see you, too.”

 

“Do you - please come in,” he said, sweeping a hand into his office. Rey kept smiling and walked past him. “Please, have a seat,” he added, gesturing at the chair in front of his desk. 

 

Rey sat down and rested the plastic bag she was carrying on her lap. She looked around curiously.

 

“So this is where you work.”

 

“This is it,” Kylo agreed. He sat down across from her and tried not to let his curiosity get the better of him. Failing, he pressed his lips together and then leaned forward. “What’s in the bag?”

 

Rey blushed and looked down, then up at him again. She seemed as shy as the first time they’d spoken. Kylo kind of liked it. 

 

“Dinner,” she said quietly. “You still haven’t eaten, right?”

 

“I haven’t,” he admitted and she smiled again. Kylo thought maybe he could bask in that glow forever. 

 

“Well, would you like to…” Rey waved a hand at his desk and Kylo took the hint to start clearing it. 

 

“I’d love to.” He caught little glances at her as he continued to shuffle the papers on his desk around and stack file folders. Rey was trying not to watch him as he worked to clear a space, whether it was out of respect for the confidentiality of his job, or because she was feeling intensely shy, he wasn’t sure. Either way, the brief looks and ongoing silence were ratcheting up the tension between them in a way Kylo wasn’t sure he’d ever experienced before. 

 

“There you go,” he finally said, swiping one last pen out of her way. Rey gave a small smile and then set the bag on the desk. Kylo wondered briefly what she’d do if he grabbed her hands and said to screw dinner, but he held himself in check. 

 

“Ta-da,” Rey said in that soft, quaint accent of hers and Kylo’s eyes were drawn to the plastic food containers she’d set out. 

 

He grinned from ear to ear.

 

“Sushi.”

 

Rey shrugged and pursed her lips. “It is Thanksgiving.”

 

Kylo tried to ignore the way his heart began beating faster. If she wasn’t careful, Rey was very much in danger of making him fall in love with her. He wondered what it would feel like, being in a relationship with her: arguing over sushi and Redbox, and which side of the bed to sleep on. He wondered if she prefered dogs or cats, or milk or dark chocolate, or brownies with or without nuts. He wondered if she had any idea what she was doing to him.

 

Twisting his mouth to hide another smile, he reached out a hand and tapped on one of the containers.

 

“Where did you get sushi this time of night?”

 

Rey was definitely blushing when she answered. “I ordered it an hour ago, before Plum closed,” she said, mentioning what just happened to be his favorite restaurant for the stuff. He was suddenly suspicious. 

 

“You didn’t text me an hour ago. How did you know I hadn’t eaten?”

 

It was Rey’s turn to press her lips together. “A lady has to have some secrets. Now stop being a lawyer and dig in.” With that, she handed him a pair of chopsticks and then started prying the lids from the containers.

 

Kylo watched her as he slowly slid the chopsticks from their holder, then began to tug at them gently. He took a deep breath, then another. Then he opened his mouth and spoke again, before he could lose his courage.

 

“So, does this count as our first date?”

 

Rey’s eyes went wide, her chopsticks clattered to the floor, and she swore around the piece of sushi she’d just shoved in her mouth. She swiftly disappeared beneath the line of the desk as she searched for her dropped utensils. Kylo stood to lean over the desk, grinning again.

 

“Was that a yes?”

**Author's Note:**

> In 'this is friendsgiving' I was writing some from experience. Seriously, y'all, one of the best litmus tests for early adulthood is having friendsgiving with all your other twenty-something friends and acquaintances. Can you all cook a turkey without adult supervision? Mash potatoes effectively? Create your own sangria recipes? (Holiday sangria is a thing, for real, and it's delish and I did attempt to make it for a friendsgiving once upon a time.)
> 
> Go forth, young actual adults! Enjoy! Make turkey and ham and burn the pies and underestimate the amount of planning hosting a party at an apartment complex entails! Most of all, spend time with people you care about and who care about you in return and please, find something to be thankful for this year. We gotta keep our hopes up and I, for one, am relying on the tenacity of youth to help bolster us through the shitshow 2017 has turned into and 2018 is likely to follow with another dumpster fire. 
> 
> XOXO


End file.
